The windows through which we see wonderful things

Category Archives: YOLB

I’m back after a long hiatus with another entry in Ye Olde Longe-Boxe! First, the hiatus part: I went on vacation, then I moved, then I started teaching. I was busy. But I haven’t forgotten you, dear reader. And so to celebrate my return from the abyss of joblessness to the lighted realm of gainful employment I give to you a turning point in the famous Knightfall saga: Batman #500!

Let’s finish off Deadpool! At least, the third and fourth issues of the 90s series we started talking about last week. This is the not-so-epic conclusion to the story of Black Tom’s mysterious (re: Macguffin) illness and the burgeoning (went nowhere) relationship between Deadpool and Siryn.

In this next installment of Ye Olde Longe-Boxe (see the first one here), we’ll learn about endless narration, good art, over-excitement, and streeeeeeetching. Unsurprisingly, it’s another 90s comic! (I do own comics from other periods, I promise). Specifically, let’s talk about Frank Miller’s “The Man Without Fear” #1.

So this is what I was talking about last time! I’m calling this inconsistent little feature “Ye Olde Longe-Boxe” (you can blame frequent commenter C-$ for that one), and it’s what it sounds like. I have some comics that are over twenty years old (never mind my habit of buying tons of back issues when I could find them when I was but a child), and sometimes I’ll dig down into them and find what sort of glory (or mess) we can discover together. Don’t expect this stuff every week, but hell, there are a lot of comics in there. I sorted through a bunch of comics and found what I think are some of the earliest I bought when I went out specifically to buy comics.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Kevin Smith’s Fatman on Batmanpodcast, and one of the things Smith is always careful to do is to find out his guests’ histories with comic books themselves. Since it’s pretty unlikely I’ll be a guest on Fatman soon (I’ve taught comic books to college kids, Kev, if you’re reading!), I thought it might be fun and helpful to outline my own history of comics here. It’s fun because, well, I get to think about that golden time in my life, which at this point is “any time before today.” It will be helpful, though, because next week I want to start an intermittent project that will emerge in part from my long, but not lifetime, history of comic fandom. So consider this a prologue, if you want to.